Chapter 600: The Misfits’ Counterattack

“Did you hear? The instructors from the Heavenly Martial Academy and the Azure Dragon Academy had a showdown last night!”

“What? Is that true?”

“I heard the Azure Dragon Hero wrecked the inn completely. It was absolute chaos.” 𝘧𝓇ℯℴ𝓂

“Huh? I heard it was the Heavenly Martial Academy instructor who instigated the fight.”

“Haha! Either way, I wish I’d seen it myself!”

The rumor spread fast. Early arrivals eagerly gossiped about the clash between Baek Suryong and Cheon Mugyeol. The story grew with each retelling, eventually escalating into a full-blown brawl among the faculty. Despite this, neither academy offered a word of clarification.

Contrary to everyone else, the atmosphere between the instructors at the heart of the rumor was subdued, though clearly more tense than in the past two days. Needless to say, everyone knew the frigid air between them had nothing to do with the winter weather.

“That bastard started it. Why are we the ones getting blamed?” Sin Yeonho grumbled, glaring at Cheon Mugyeol.

Baek Suryong patted his shoulder to calm him down. “Don’t get involved with that man. He’s dangerous.”

“So what? Is he going to ambush us during the Heavenly Martial Festival?”

“He’s the type who wouldn’t hesitate to do that, or worse, if he thought it was necessary.”

“Gulp...” Sin Yeonho swallowed dryly at how earnestly the joke had been delivered.

The other nearby instructors were also visibly anxious. Baek Suryong was usually composed, but last night, he was clearly agitated.

Baek Suryong himself was the only one who seemed entirely unbothered. In fact, he appeared far more relaxed than he had the previous evening.

“Just ignore him. He won’t bother us for a while.”

Cheon Mugyeol’s sole objective was to kill the Blood Demon. He would do anything to achieve that goal, but that also meant he wouldn’t lift a finger for anything unrelated to it.

Actually, I do want to ask if he knows a way to annihilate the Blood Demon completely, but...he’s not going to entertain me, is he?

Last night’s conversation had clarified Cheon Mugyeol’s objective considerably. The death he wanted for the Blood Demon was more than just the destruction of a physical body. His long-held wish was the total annihilation of the entity that endlessly reincarnated itself into new vessels after each death.

Given this, it was only natural that Cheon Mugyeol would observe him closely without ever trusting him. He would have done the same in the man’s place.

Baek Suryong’s gaze drifted toward Cheon Mugyeol, who coincidentally happened to be staring at him.

“Baek Suryong,” Namgung Su chided, ending the staring contest instantly. “Why do you cause trouble the instant I take my eyes off you?”

“Didn’t you hear the rumor? That guy started it.”

“And you call that an excuse...” Namgung Su looked ready to say much more, but suddenly frowned deeply. Faced with Baek Suryong’s laid-back demeanor, he couldn’t bring himself to deliver the scolding he had prepared. Ultimately, he simply said, “...The matches will begin soon. Focus on your duties as an instructor.”

“Yes, yes, I get it, Mr. Namgung Su.”

Shrugging, Baek Suryong turned away from Cheon Mugyeol and looked around. Preparations for the third day of the Heavenly Martial Festival were in full swing, and crowds were filling the spectator seats. He fiddled with the Azure Dragon Emblem in his pocket as he scanned the area.

**When the Heavenly Martial Festival is over, I will visit Master with my dear friends – Sagon**

Sagon must be out there somewhere, watching. Maybe the other three trainees are here with him, too.

Still, it was hard to believe. He had doubted it more than a dozen times over the course of the night, turning the emblem over and over in his fingers.

However, the engraved writing matched Sagon’s calligraphy from a penmanship book he had seen before. As if to prove the writer’s identity, the strokes carried the essence of the Eighteen Strikes of the Viridian Forest. This was neither a forgery nor a deception. Sagon had indeed left for the Blood Cult to find his old friends and had brought all of those children here.

To Baek Suryong, it was nothing short of a miracle.

“When the Heavenly Martial Festival is over...”

They would come to find him, which meant that he was not supposed to go looking for them first. There was also an element of encouragement in those words, telling him to do his best because they were watching him.

At least, that was how he chose to interpret the message.

“Okay, I won’t disappoint you.”

Grinning, he swept his eyes over the audience. Countless auras were tangled in the crowd. If his former students had come far enough, they could definitely hide their presence from him.

He could probably find them if he tried, of course, but Baek Suryong decided against it. Wherever they were watching from, he hoped they had found a good spot with some tasty snacks to enjoy the view.

“The match’s about to start. I hope Soyeong doesn’t let her nerves get to her...” Myeong Il’oh mumbled, drifting to Baek Suryong’s side.

He looked more nervous than the participants themselves. Today’s event pitted students against one another with contraptions of their own design. Since these inventions could pose unexpected dangers, each academy had assigned a specially trained instructor to supervise the event.

“She’ll do well. She prepared more diligently than anyone,” Baek Suryong reassured, his eyes fixed on Jaegal Soyeong as she mingled with her students.

At first glance, she looked young enough to be mistaken for a student herself. However, her passion for learning and her sheer dedication were well-known among her peers.

She worked consistently and silently. Only Baek Suryong and Namgung Su clocked more overtime than she did. Even the instructors who had initially dismissed her as the spoiled princess of the Jaegal Clan now acknowledged her unequivocally.

“Engineering Research Society! Show them the results of your research!”

“You can lose to the other academies, but you absolutely cannot lose to the Heavenly Martial Academy!”

The Azure Dragon Academy students cheered enthusiastically for their seniors and juniors. The previous night’s rumor seemed to have fired them up, too. Their eyes, fixed on the Heavenly Martial Academy students, burned with competitiveness.

The Heavenly Martial Academy students cheered far less openly, their displeasure plain to see.

Sin Yeonho turned to Myeong Il’oh. “Those kids competing today... They’re from the club Soyeong is in charge of, right?”

The Engineering Research Society, or ERS for short, was where the Azure Dragon Academy’s misfits gathered. Most martial arts students their age cared far more about fighting than about complex formations, technology, or murim history, so it was only natural that Jaegal Soyeong had taken charge of a club that brought together such students.

“That’s right. No matter how busy she gets, Soyeong never misses a club meeting. She says she enjoys teaching them.”

“I hope they don’t feel too pressured...”

“It’d be great if they could last seven and a half minutes against the Black Tortoise Academy’s creations.”

Most of the instructors seemed to share that sentiment. Even though they cheered for Jaegal Soyeong and her students, they clearly regarded mere participation as the point of today’s event.

One glance at the roster explained why. Not a single one of the Five Young Azure Dragons or any other dominant martial arts prodigy appeared on it.

Baek Suryong was the only instructor who wore a strange smile. “Let’s just watch. Who knows? Those nerds might actually surprise us?”

“Hyung-nim, I asked about this yesterday too... but you know something we don’t, don’t you?”

Just then, an old man with snow-white hair and the bearing of an immortal rose from among the Principals of the Five Great Academies, a gentle breeze stirring his voluminous robes. He was the man Baek Suryong had met when he visited the Black Tortoise Academy to see the Dark Heaven Goddess.

“I am Jongri Mok, Acting Principal of the Black Tortoise Academy.”

Jongri Mok was the Dark Heaven Goddess’s student and one of the few sorcerers powerful enough to stand against a peerless martial master. He could hold his own in a discussion of sorcery against anyone alive, except his own master.

His voice, imbued with sorcery instead of qi, carried softly throughout the arena.

“I will now explain the Murim Engineering Competition.”

Today, every academy except the Black Tortoise Academy was a challenger, the Heavenly Martial Academy included.

“The rules are simple. Students from the other academies must dismantle or break the devices built by the Black Tortoise Academy students and escape.”